St. Louis, Missouri -- David Gregory, an attorney and lifelong resident of south St. Louis County, has been elected Treasurer of the Tesson Ferry Township Republican Club in South St. Louis County. As Treasurer and member of the Executive Board, Gregory will help establish club policies and guide official business as well as help plan club activities, recommendations, positions, and responses to political action requests. In addition, Gregory will help establish an annual club operating budget and formulate annual goals and objectives. Gregory is an attorney who specializes in civil and criminal litigation. He earned a degree in accounting, a...

JEFFERSON CITY — Some Missouri Republican lawmakers outlined proposals Tuesday to strengthen parental notification requirements for minors seeking abortions, as they sought to expand upon a new law tripling the state's abortion waiting period. Supporters of abortion rights said the bills heard by a House committee could make it more difficult for minors to get abortions and potentially put them at risk of harm from parents who disagree with their decision. Last year, Missouri lawmakers overrode Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of a mandatory 72-hour waiting period before abortions. Tuesday's hearings were the first on the topic this year, as...

For the third time, the cops of the NYPD have turned their backs on the mayor of New York. The first time was when Mayor Bill de Blasio arrived at Woodhull Hospital where mortally wounded officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu had been taken on Dec. 20. The second was when the mayor spoke at Ramos’ funeral. The third was at Liu’s service on Sunday. Detestation of de Blasio among the NYPD and the cops who came from across the country to stand in solidarity with their slain brothers is broad and deep. And, in a way, de Blasio served...

Senator Blunt Joins Cruz, Cornyn On Amicus Brief Against President Obama’s Executive Amnesty WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.) joined an amicus brief led by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (Texas) and co-signed by U.S. Senator John Cornyn (Texas) in support of a lawsuit brought by the State of Texas against President Barack Obama’s illegal amnesty. The brief is also co-signed by a number of members from the U.S. House of Representatives. Blunt also voted in favor of a constitutional point of order offered by Cruz and U.S. Senator Mike Lee (Utah) against the president’s executive amnesty. “I agree...

Sen. Rand Paul is blaming politicians for the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, arguing that the criminal justice system fuels racial tension by disproportionately targeting African-Americans. The so-called war on drugs has created a culture of violence and put police in a nearly impossible situation," Paul said in an op-ed published for TIME. He acknowledged that the shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer wasn't related to drugs, but argued that outsized penalties for nonviolent drug crimes creates a "tension in some communities that too often results in tragedy." The comments are another attempt by Paul, a Kentucky...

"We want a fair, impartial, and color-blind criminal justice system. But if we're honest with ourselves, that doesn't exist for all Americans today."Late Monday night, after the House took its final votes, members of the Congressional Black Caucus took the floor to speak for about one hour about race in the wake of a grand jury's decision last week not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the August shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. "Hands up, don't shoot," Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York began. Charles Rangel, the longtime New York Democrat, followed Jeffries and CBC Chairwoman...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Rep. Peter King has a suggestion for the White House in dealing with the latest developments in Ferguson — invite Officer Darren Wilson over. “I think it would be very helpful if President Obama went and met with the police officer, or invited him to the White House and said, ‘You’ve gone through four months of smear and slander, and the least we can do is tell you that it’s unfortunate that it happened and thank you for doing your job,’” the New York Republican told Fox Business on Tuesday. ---snip--- “I thought it was terrible how, over the last...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Legislative Black Caucus has picked its next leader. The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/10IDWhO ) reports that State Rep. Brandon Ellington will serve as caucus chairman for the 2015 legislative session. The Kansas City Democrat was first elected to the House in 2011 and had served as caucus vice-chair....

Black anger at a local Democrat's handling of the shooting of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, has given the Republican candidate some hope of winning the race for St Louis County executive for first time since the 1980s. Polls show both candidates virtually tied in this troubled corner of America. A group of African-American leaders is endorsing Republican Rick Stream. One reason: Democratic hopeful Steve Stenger's support of the prosecutor investigating the Ferguson police department, which is under scrutiny after a white officer shot dead Brown, an 18-year-old African-American, in August. That group accuses the county prosecutor Robert McCulloch...

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — The two winning primary candidates for St. Louis County executive anticipated a general election campaign heavy on the nuts and bolts of local government: taxes, roads, parks and schools. Then came Ferguson. Sparking a national debate over race relations and police killings, the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was black, by a white municipal police officer in early August also transformed a local election that typically draws little attention outside of St. Louis....

Low African American voter turnout helped create Ferguson’s mostly white government. Black leaders nationwide are using that fact to get their constituents to the polls.For many African Americans, this is shaping up to be the Ferguson Election. Around the country, black voters are being mobilized to vote in the 2014 midterms with the argument that the death of Michael Brown resulted, in part, from lack of black civic participation. While the population of Ferguson is nearly 70 percent African American, only 6 percent cast a ballot in the last municipal elections. This led to a majority-black city where the mayor...

The Democratic effort to pump up the African-American vote in Georgia just took an interesting turn. A reader has sent us this early-voting turnout mailer sent out by the Georgia Democratic party that focuses on the shooting of Michael Brown and subsequent unrest in Ferguson, Mo. It contains an interesting line that concedes the problem of low interest among black voters: “If we want a better, safer future for our children, it’s up to us to vote for change. The choices may not always be perfect, but the cost of inaction is simply too great.” Here’s a complete look: And...

Below the fold on the front page of the October 15 edition of the Washington Post was a rather fascinating story out of Ferguson, Missouri, about how young black voters in the St. Louis suburb are considering casting at least one vote on the ballot this November for a Republican. Post staff writer Sandhya Somashekhar delivered the scoop you are very unlikely to find noted on race-obsessed MSNBC. Here's a relevant excerpt (emphasis mine): FERGUSON, Mo. — Darren Seals experienced waves of disbelief and anger after Michael Brown’s death, but two months later, he has found a way to channel...

Paul is the first potential 2016 contender to visit the city.Sen. Rand Paul met with civil rights leaders Friday in Ferguson, Missouri, the city torn apart by racial unrest following the August shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer. During his visit, the Republican Senator, who is seen as a likely presidential candidate, stated his concerns about long prison sentences for nonviolent crimes, the loss of voting rights for felons and military programs to give unused equipment to local police departments. “I wanted to find out what we could do to make the situation better,” Paul...

Four days before Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen, was shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, sparking nearly two weeks of protests, the black community there lost the most racially divisive election in recent memory. On August 5, Democrats in St. Louis County headed to the polls to choose their nominee in November’s county executive race. On the primary ballot was 10-year incumbent Charlie Dooley, who is black, and his challenger, white county Councilman Steve Stenger. When the votes were tallied, Stenger had won overwhelmingly, ousting the black incumbent by nearly the same margin (66 percent...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There are 65 prominent people who might run for president in 2016. The Democratic and Republican fields contrast sharply. Hillary Clinton is the clear front-runner, while there is no front-runner on the Republican side. Twenty-three Democrats have been mentioned as a candidate or are eyeing a bid, according to an analysis by The Hill. The GOP side has 42. Most of the people on this list won’t run, and some have adamantly claimed that they’re not interested. But many politicians have changed their minds on seeking the White House. Before mounting his 2008 bid, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he...

Even after the unrest in Ferguson has subsided, we're left with questions about the tension that built up and exploded in the small St. Louis suburb. Among those questions: How did a city where two-thirds of the residents are black elect an almost entirely white city government? The answer is simple: Ferguson holds its city elections entirely separate from state and national elections, and that can make all the difference. People rarely think about the timing of elections. But Missouri's election rules set the stage for the discontent that has tormented Ferguson recently. The state requires its cities to hold...

Progressives really, really, really wanted to hear from Hillary Clinton on the events in Ferguson, Mo., where an unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by a white police officer on Aug. 9, sparking days of unrest in that small city outside St. Louis and elsewhere. Al Sharpton said he wanted to smoke Clinton out on Ferguson and suggested that if she ran in 2016, he would be a thorn in her side on civil rights issues. MSNBC host Chris Hayes thought it was Â“bizarreÂ” that Clinton hadnÂ’t at least weighed in with a statement on the incident, even though...

What do the midterm elections have to do with the killing of black 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.? Ask CNN contributor and former Democratic National Committee vice chairwoman Donna Brazile. The politicization of Ferguson in the small world of cable news has been limited to liberals claiming the incident was racially motivated and conservatives leaping to the defense of Darren Wilson, the white officer who shot Brown. That was until Tuesday, when Brazile began encouraging her followers to use Ferguson as inspiration to vote in the November midterm elections. Â“We have to be passionate about the upcoming election,Â” Brazile...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) CHRIS WALLACE: Karl. Attorney General Holder visited Ferguson this week and very pointedly said, I understand -- not that I condone or agree with, but I understand the mistrust you have in the police department, and he talked about some cases where he had been profiled. Afterwards he met, you can see here on the screen, with Captain Ron Johnson of the state highway patrol, who is in charge of the police effort, who said that he thought that Holder and the fact that the grand jury was beginning to hear actual evidence, were the two major factors in...

Jesse Jackson and other liberal activists are rolling out voter registration efforts as part of a coordinated left-wing push to sign up voters during the wave of violent protests engulfing Ferguson, Missouri in the aftermath of the Michael Brown shooting. Racial activist and former Democratic presidential candidate Jesse Jackson met with St. Louis clergy Monday to plan a formal Ferguson voter registration drive. “Five thousand new voters will transform the city from top to bottom” Jackson explained during a stop at a Ferguson McDonald’s, where he discussed voter registration with local denizens. Liberal activists — including from the George Soros-funded...

Rand Paul and Ted Cruz’s differing tone in response to the Ferguson riots could provide clues for the divergent trails they're forging to woo libertarian voters in 2016. Both the Kentucky and Texas Senate Republicans urged that civil liberties be protected in statements following unrest in Ferguson, Mo.. After an officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an 18 year old African American teen, last weekend, riots have erupted and police have been criticized for using overly-aggressive force against protesters and reporters calling for answers. Strategists say Paul struck a more provocative tone against in his TIME op-ed, calling for the...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)"Rand Paul is right," Rev. Al Sharpton said on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Friday after the Kentucky Senator empathized with African-Americans who believe their rights were threatened by police officers. Paul published a TIME op-ed on Thursday discussing the issue of the "militarization" of the police force and what it meant in the showdown between police officers and protestors in Ferguson, Missouri reacting to the shooting death of Michael Brown. "Given the racial disparities in our criminal justice system, it is impossible for African-Americans not to feel like their government is particularly targeting them," Paul wrote, after criticizing the racial...

In an unusual move that is getting some national political buzz, the chairman of the Missouri Republican Party is asking the national GOP to investigate campaign ads and robocalls that attacked Mississippi Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel in his failed attempt to unseat U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss. Missouri Republican Party Chairman Ed Martin has requested that Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus appoint a task to investigate the “racially divisive” ads and robocalls that alleged McDaniel had racist ties. The request has turned some heads because, as the leader of a state Republican Party, someone in Martin's position would...

On Sunday, Senator Claire McCaskill gave a full-throated defense of the president's decision to release five Taliban commanders from the Guantanamo prison in exchange for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. "We saved this man's life. The commander-in-chief acted within his constitutional authority, which he should have done," McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri, told Fox News host Chris Wallace. "I'm very proud that we have no POWs left in Afghanistan and the president should be proud of it also." But following multiple reports that Bergdahl deserted his post and soldiers died searching for him, McCaskill will no longer say she still supports the...

In the Missouri special election held Tuesday night Jason Smith won his race in a landslide, with 67 percent of the vote. Mr Smith will go to Washington! Sarah Palin who endorsed Smith tweeted her congratulations: Sarah Palin âś” @SarahPalinUSA Mr. Smith goes to Washington! Congrats @RepJasonSmith -- stay strong and true to your roots! 9:01 PM - 4 Jun 2013 193 Retweets 93 favorites From Ed Harris the Chairman of the Missouri GOP: On Tuesday night, conservative Republican Jason Smith was elected to Congress in a landslide. He finished with 67 percent of the vote, 40 points ahead of...

Former Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s Sarah PAC contributed $5,000 on 5/14 to Jason Smith (R-Mo.), who is running in the Missouri 8th District Special General Election on 6/4. The seat was vacated by Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) in January. Emerson is now the CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Smith, who is the Speaker Pro Tem of the Missouri House of Representatives, reported raising $200,313 from 4/1 to 5/15, and has $228,147 cash on hand as of 5/15. Smith raised $114,083 from individuals, including $5,200 from Anthony Kelly (owner, Precision Tent Rental, MO); $5,200 from Charlotte...

Less than a month remains before the June 4th special election for Congressman in Missouri's 8th Congressional District. Both major candidates continue to get endorsements from within their own party. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has endorsed the Republican contender Jason Smith while the Democratic contender has received an endorsement from Governor Jay Nixon. Others running for the open seat, that was vacated when Jo Ann Emerson resigned, include Constitution Party candidate Doug Enyart, Libertarian Bill Slantz and two write-in candidates Thomas Brown and Doctor Robert George.

<p>Sen. Claire McCaskill is the latest on Capitol Hill to announce support for same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>Mrs. McCaskill, Missouri Democrat, put on her Tumblr page on Sunday: “I have come to the conclusion that our government should not limit the right to marry based on who you love. While churches should never be required to conduct marriages outside of their religious beliefs, neither should the government tell people who they have a right to marry.”</p>

Missouri Democrat state Rep. Rory Ellinger has put forth H.B. 545, which would ban "assault weapons" and many semi-automatic pistols. It would give owners of said weapons 90 days to either turn them in or get them out of the state. After 90 days, those in possession of such weapons would face class "C" felony charges. The legislation defines an "assault weapon" as a rifle with a detachable magazine and any "one or more of the following: a pistol grip or thumbhole stock... protruding grip that can be held by nontrigger hand, a folding or telescoping stock, [or] a shroud...

The controversy over the abortion-rape comments made by Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin appear to be hurting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Whereas Rasmussen polling showed Romney leading pro-abortion President Barack Obama at the end of July and having Romney leading the race in the Show Me State all year, now Obama has the lead. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Missouri Voters finds President Obama with 47% support to Romney’s 46%. Three percent (3%) favor some other candidate in the race, and three percent (3%) more are undecided. At the end of July, Romney led by six...

Check out the headline below from the Hill dated Aug. 12. Governor Sarah Palin endorsed Sarah Steelman in Missouri and not Todd Akin:(GRAPHIC AT LINK)(In light of the very weird political drama unfolding right now in Missouri, Governor Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Sarah Steelman sure seems politically wiser than the endorsement of Rep Todd Akin! I don’t know anything about Steelman – I did not follow the race closely – but I can’t imagine anyone could be a more difficult candidate for the Republican Party than Akin. He potentially hands the race to his political opponent Sen Claire McCaskill plus...

Via BuzzFeed, itÂ’s important that people like Hannity, Coulter, and the boss emeritus are leaning on this guy too, not just Romney and Reince Priebus. Without pressure from all-stars on the right, he can dig in and turn it into a Â“weak-ass establishment RINOs are selling me out to the DemocratsÂ” populist attack on D.C. Republicans. That might be enough to rally grassroots conservatives to his side and keep him in the race, but not enough to prevent him from losing to McCaskill and, just maybe, dragging the ticket down with him. How lucky do you feel? Want to bet...

Sarah Palin stepped out in Kansas yesterday wearing a Superman T-shirt, skintight cropped pants and five-inch platform wedges - her political uniform of choice while campaigning for Republican Sarah Steelman. While mounting an aggressive campaign in Missouri with television and radio ads, and then serving barbecued pork sandwiches at a rural political picnic, the 48-year-old ditched her suits for an entirely new look. Taking to the makeshift stage in the middle of a farm field, the former Alaska governor proved her new style seems to be nowhere near as conservative as her political views. After the former vice-presidential candidate was...

CLEVELAND, Mo. -- Sarah Palin, Senate kingmaker, is at it again. Riding a four-endorsement winning streak in Republican Senate primaries this year, the former Alaska governor swept into a blueberry patch outside Kansas City this weekend looking to apply her Midas touch to the latest fortunate recipient. This time it's Sarah Steelman, a former state treasurer running in a fractured Missouri Tuesday primary to decide who gets to take on vulnerable Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in November. With Steelman, Palin is making perhaps her boldest bet yet. Steelman -- who, like Palin, likes to hunt, staunchly opposes abortion rights and...

Mitt Romney, a job-killing economic "vampire"? That's the message of a new ad by President Barack Obama's re-election campaign, which aims to turn the presumptive Republican nominee's business record into a liability as voters worry about the struggling economy. A two-minute version of the new video will run in Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Virginia. A six-minute version is available on a new Obama campaign site that is specifically devoted to criticizing Romney's approach to economic issues. Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said the former Massachusetts governor welcomed Team Obama's "attempt to pivot back to jobs and a discussion of their...

Police and organizers shut down proceedings at one of Missouri's largest caucuses today, as Ron Paul supporters feuded with local GOP leaders. "It's like the Hatfields and the McCoys around here," St. Charles County's former GOP chairman told ABC News, after police arrived on-scene with a helicopter and removed Paul backers. In St. Charles, an exurb of St. Louis and one of the state's largest GOP counties, Paul supporters sought to elect their own chairman and adopt their own rules when proceedings opened - both of which are part of standard caucus rules and procedure. But as they argued with...

Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich has set up a political committee to test the waters for a U.S. Senate campaign, finally publicly confirming his interest in a race he once pledged not to enter. The IRS has approved the creation of a “Schweich for US Senate” committee, following an application by Schweich’s campaign treasurer. The committee allows money to be raised and spent on behalf of Schweich while he considers whether to launch a formal challenge to Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. The Senate race already includes three prominent Republicans — former State Treasurer Sarah Steelman of Rolla, U.S. Rep. Todd Akin...

The GOP field against vulnerable Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill might not be set yet. Show-Me State Auditor Tom Schweich is considering entering the race, according to a Missouri Republican familiar with his thinking. Schweich supporters have even filed paperwork with the IRS to begin the process of setting up an organization that could support his campaign. That news was first tweeted by Greg Giroux of Bloomberg News.Businessman John Brunner, former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman and Rep. Todd Akin (Mo.) are the current contenders for the GOP nomination. Some Missouri Republicans have groused for months that their field could be stronger...

ST. LOUIS • The conservative political conference coming to town this weekend will feature several influential Republican women, but perhaps the most popular of them will appear only on film. On Friday and Saturday, the downtown Crowne Plaza will host the annual conference for Smart Girl Politics Action, a non-profit dedicated to "engaging, educating and empowering conservative women." Slated to appear are some of the most prominent GOP women in local politics: Sarah Steelman, Ann Wagner, Dana Loesch and, of course, Phyllis Schlafly. Several well-known Republicans males have been invited to speak as well, including Peter Kinder and Herman Cain....

Footage has emerged showing Missouri congresswoman Vicky Hartzler comparing gay marriage to incest, paedophilia and allowing three-year-olds to drive. The Tea Party-backed politician told a conference of college students that if same-sex marriages were allowed, it would lead to paedophiles and polygamists being allowed to marry. In secretly recorded video, posted on YouTube, Mrs Hartzler said: ‘Well, think about it. That starts you down the road to opening up licensure to basically meaning that the license would mean nothing. (VIDEO AT LINK) ‘If you just cared about somebody, have a committed relationship, why not allow one man and two women...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Peter in Branson, Missouri, let's go ahead and start on the phones here. Peter, hi, welcome to the EIB Network. Great to have you here. CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. I just want to warn you: I'm a liberal Democrat, I'm a poli-sci professor, but (chuckles) I wanted to comment on Sarah Palin show. We are, honestly -- I'm just being honest with you, Rush. We fear Palin as a Republican candidate because she can beat President Obama. I'm just gonna flat-out tell you. She is providing something that the other...

The political landscape in Missouri is in stasis. Last week, we found Claire McCaskill at about the same fifty-fifty standing as in our previous poll in March. Now, in the state that featured the closest presidential contest in 2008, with John McCain winning in a photo finish, President Obama is at almost exactly the same position against his potential 2012 opponents as two months ago--slightly up on a few and slightly behind the two leading contenders. 43% approve and 53% disapprove of the president’s job performance, almost indentical to March’s 43-52 split. As such, he trails Mike Huckabee, 44-49, and...

Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond isn't going quietly. In his final days as a U.S. senator before retiring, Bond marched repeatedly to the Senate floor to deliver policy addresses on matters ranging from energy to national security to global trade. He even made a speech entitled "Rare Earth," a lesson on the strategic value of metallic elements in Missouri's soil. He recently introduced a bill to spend $50 million to secure a rare earth supply chain — even though he won't be in the Senate to shepherd it. On Dec. 14, Bond, R-Mo., stood to deliver his farewell address, a panoramic...

Preserving American Liberty announced today Fred and Jeri Thompson and Liz Cheney will join Sarah Palin at the Independence Events Center, Saturday, May 1, 2010. Fred Thompson is a former Presidential Candidate, U.S. Senator and is a well-known Actor, Jeri Thompson is married to Fred Thompson and is a political commentator, and Liz Cheney is with Keep America Safe and the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Tickets for "Winning America Back" are available at the Independence Events Center box office (open Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., online at www.GetTix.net or by calling 1-866-443-8849.) There will...

The decision by Beau Biden not to run for Senate brings to mind an historical parallel. With no Biden in the race, with no Ted Kaufman serving another term, the Democratic candidate is likely to be New Castle County executive Chris Coons. Back in 1972, no Democrat wanted to run against a popular Republican, so a young New Castle County Councilman with no money entered the race. His name: Joe Biden. Historical parallels might be all that Democrats have to hang onto. Rep. Mike Castle (R) is sufficiently popular statewide and has a fairly unimpeachable record of service in Washington....

Missouri state Sen. Bill Stouffer is seeking the 2010 Republican nomination to oppose veteran Democratic Rep. Ike Skelton. Stouffer recently filed a statement of candidacy and a statement of organization to organize a campaign in Missouri's 4th, a Republican-leaning district that includes all or part of 25 counties in central and western Missouri. "Enough is enough," Stouffer told CQ Politics Friday. "We've lost sight of what the role of the federal government is. We forget that the federal government was created by the states to serve the states, not to dictate to the states, and I'm concerned with the deficits...